Archive for Thursday, February 9, 2012

Officials face decisions: what to do with casino revenue?

By Caroline Boyer

February 9, 2012

The casino doors have opened, and an agreement has long been in place for the gambling revenues that are set to flow into government coffers — but that doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t still decisions to be made about how to spend the funds.

The commissioners for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan., met Thursday, Feb. 2, to review casino revenue distribution, and Joe Reardon, mayor and CEO of the Unified Government, warned the commissioners that they still have to determine the best use of the funds.

Commissioners reviewed revenue distribution required by state statute and the agreement formed in 2007 for revenue sharing between the county and Wyandotte cities. The casino will give 27 percent of its gambling revenues to the state. Of that, 22 percent remains with the state, and 2 percent goes to the Problems with Gambling and Addictions grant fund.

Under state statute, 1.5 percent of funds goes to the host county, and 1.5 percent of funds goes to the host city. The 2007 interlocal agreement states that the 1.5 percent that goes to the host city will be divided among the three cities in the county: .75 percent goes to Kansas City, Kan., .47 percent goes to Bonner Springs, and .28 percent goes to Edwardsville.

“Part of the idea with the interlocal agreement was before a single application came in to any city … the cities got together and tried to raise the bar on quality and stop the cities from being played one against the other by applicants,” Reardon said. “… The idea here was to put the cities in a position of power to get the best applications possible by setting criteria high and ensuring that regardless what city landed the casino, all cities had a potential to benefit from a portion of the revenue that came into the community.”

With gaming revenues estimated at $200 million in the first year, $54 million would go to the state.

Unified Government staff members said they have been told that the casino will send its revenues to the state, who will distribute it back to the county and city governments each month. The local governments should receive those payments 10 to 15 days after the end of each month.

The commission also reviewed decisions it will have to make in the coming year. Part of the Unified Government’s development agreement with the casino required that the casino provide $1,135,000 in annual charitable contributions, which won’t be distributed until 2013. The commission will have to decide how those funds are distributed.

“We’ve had phone calls, we’ve had concerns, that the casino is opening — how can I get some charitable contribution?” Hayes said.

The commission will have to decide how to distribute the $500,000 of those charitable funds to social service organizations and another $500,000 to local school districts — Kansas City, Kan., Piper, Turner and Bonner Springs-Edwardsville.

The county parks and recreation department is to receive $100,000 of charitable funds: $25,000 goes to the Kansas City, Kan., Convention and Visitor’s Bureau; and $10,000 goes to the Wyandotte County chambers of commerce — Bonner Springs-Edwardsville Area Chamber of Commerce would get $1,500.

The Unified Government is projecting it will receive $3.7 million in 2012, and commissioners discussed how they already had planned to use that to cover budget shortfalls in other areas. Reardon said they will need to decide if funds will be used to “fill holes” or to create programs that don’t currently exist.

“It’s a good challenge to have; not many cities have this challenge, quite frankly,” Reardon said.

Comments

  1. geo (anonymous) says…

    how about give some of this revenue to the school around the state. Maybe teacher could get a well deserved raise. i my district our salary's have been frozen, four year now. Budget cut in education at the state and federal level come down to the local level. local taxes are about at a maximum. So lets some of this revenue help out our school and the students who are the future of our country

  2. triedntru (anonymous) says…

    Geo,

    I take it from your post that you're a teacher or somehow part of the district. I must say your use of the English language is absolutely horrible and an embarrassment to the education field. Sadly, this is the same kind of stuff I have seen written by high school students on some of their papers.

    If you are an educator and you write mindless filth like that, you don't deserve a raise. You don't even deserve a job!

    Your first sentence is missing a capital letter, a subject (who gives?) and "school" should be plural.

    In your second sentence, teacher should be plural and "well deserved" should probably be hyphenated.

    The third sentence is missing a capital letter, an apostrophe indicates possession (not plurality) so salarie's should be salaries, you have misused a comma and you're missing the preposition "for."

    In the fourth sentence, the word cut should be plural, but that's about as well as you can polish that turd. Probably should just rewrite it.

    The fifth sentence should begin with a capital letter. Seriously, why do you alternate like this? Either do it and appear intelligent or don't and appear lazy. About and at are both prepositions.

    In the sixth sentence, the word lets should be singular, and is missing a period.

    What's sad about this is that I'm in the engineering field and really don't have English education beyond high school and the basics in college. I could eat a bowl of Alpha-Bits cereal and crap a more coherent thought!

    Furthermore, your reading comprehension is lacking, because the article above states $500,000 will be given to "local school districts — Kansas City, Kan., Piper, Turner and Bonner Springs-Edwardsville."

    Please, for the sake of our children and the country at large, find gainful employment elsewhere if you are in any way associated with our district.